Second Chances?
by InTheVast
Summary: Draco turns against the death eaters and joins up with with his old enemy Harry who is forging a relationship with his exlover Ron.
1. Chapter 1

-1**Title:** Second Chances? (Part 1 of 3)  
**Pairing:** Harry/Ron, Draco/Ron  
**Author:** InTheVast  
**Rating:** NC-17  
**Warnings:** Slash, Melodrama, Sex, and Angst  
**Word Count:** 3230  
**Disclaimers:** No ownership.  
**Author's Notes:** Entry for the First Lines Challenge (http/community. I used #1. I haven't wrote HP fanfic for probably over a year or two, so I'm afraid I'm a little rusty and it really comes out in this fic. Sorry! Hopefully it will improve as the story goes on.

Part I.

"Everyone deserves a second chance Ron." said Harry, tiredly.  
"Not him! Not fucking Malfoy! You know what he tried to do!" Ron slammed his mug down on the table. Lupin rose slowly from his chair.  
"Ron, be reasonable. Dumbledore would have given him a second chance."

"Well, Dumbledore is fucking dead. So we can't ask him, can we?"

"God we are outnumbered as it is. We need any able wizard we can get."

Harry watched as Ron's face paled, no doubt memories were running through his mind. He hated to ask that of Ron, to accept Draco as one of the resistance aurors, but what could he do? Draco had information that they needed, he was willing to turn traitor on Voldemort, and help them. And they had been stuck in this den for weeks, biding their time, waiting for their chance. But time was running out. The dementors were on patrol and could find them any day now. Draco could be just what they need to win this war.

"Please Ron, for me." Harry said softly reaching for Ron's hand.

He and Lupin waited for Ron to swallow everything down.

"Fine." He whispered, fingers wrapping tight around Harry's. This simple gesture brought Harry back to the very moment when he first found out what was really going on between Ron and Malfoy.

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Ron's lips bleed. Harry can already see the bruised knuckles; the swelling, ruddy cheeks, even from his respectable distance.

"Did you get in a fight?" He asks from the doorway. Ron looks up startled eyes clashing, then abandoning. He looks at himself along with Harry in the mirror as if seeing himself for the first time. Harry is not surprised. He has seen the changes. They have grown black inside him for months.

"I suppose you could say that." Ron is now rinsing his hands in the porcelain sink and the boy who lived watches the red drain away with everything he wants to say.

Ron looks at him again from the mirror. "What are you doing up so late anyway?"

Harry shifts, awkward angles in the doorway.

"I could ask you the same thing." He says and bites his lip so hard he imagines it might bleed like Ron's and waste away like the remnants of his wounds, and the untold secrets, and the unexplained disappearances.

Ron begins to wash his face, splashing water. But wait, is that water running down his face, or…

"Are you crying Ron?"

"No!" But Harry heard the sob catch in his best friend's throat.

Before he could even think about it he was by Ron's side.

"Talk to me Ron. I'm so tried of all these secrets. We used to be best friends. You… you are still my best friend. You can trust me."

"No… I shouldn't." But something in Harry's eyes made him continue. "It's Draco. He did this to me." Ron said shuddering in Harry's arms.

"You got in a fight with him? What happened?" Harry asked.

"He tried to rape me." Ron cried out, turning to face Harry.

"No. No. Why? How could he?" Harry did the only thing he could, he hugged his friend.

Ron shook his head, sobs wracking his shoulders.

"Tell me. Please tell me Ron." Harry said desperately turning Ron's face to his, so they were eye to eye.

"We were dating secretly…" Ron laughed bitterly, wiping away his tears. "I guess if you could even call it that. That's where I have been all these nights."

It made so much sense now. The way Draco had been mysteriously ignoring Ron, no longer making fun of him around Harry and Hermione. Harry listened as Ron continued with his story.

"Tonight we had an argument. A fight, really." Ron looked at Harry with some kind of sadness that he never seen before on his best friend's face. It stirred unknown things deep within him.

"I knew something was going on. He was hiding something from me. I confronted him, and we fought. I said terrible things. I knew, I knew he had become a death eater. I wanted to see the dark mark, you know, to prove it to myself." Ron sniffled.

"I ripped the sleeve of his robes off. And there it was. I should have know all along."

Harry shook his head. "You couldn't have known Ron. You are a good person, you wanted to trust him."

Ron's face fell. "I loved him."

Harry's breath caught. He felt like someone had kicked him in the stomach.

"How could he do this to you?"

"Oh, Harry. We fought after I saw the mark. I told him I was going to leave him, I told him I was going to tell everyone. That's when he got the upper hand. A look I had never seen before was in his eyes. He looked dangerous. He held me down and told me he would keep me quiet." The tears were flowing more freely now on Ron's face.

"His hands started undoing my robes, and I called him all sorts of names. I guess maybe the bastard realized what he was trying to do because he stopped. I punched him in the face and ran."

"Ron… what can I do? What can I do to make this better?"

Ron looked at him again, the bewildered hurt had vanished. This time replaced with steel resolve.

"I don't ever want to be reminded of this again."

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It looked like Harry had broken his promise. He went alone to meet Draco, Lupin was busy meeting with aurors in another hiding camp, and Ron, he suspected, was sulking, but not without good cause. It started to drizzle before he met Draco. He decided not to think of the metaphorical implications. Nor did he think about how he felt like he was betraying Ron.

Draco was waiting at the edge of the abandoned field with his back towards Harry.

"Malfoy?" Harry said, peering through the fog. Draco turned at his name being called and his cool eyes fixated on Harry's as a sneer formed on his lips.

"Took you long enough."

"You are lucky I even came." Harry bit out. "Now are you coming or not? As much as I would love to sit here and catch up, I'm afraid your old pals, you know the ones that can't wait to kill me, will find us."

"Whatever Potter," Draco's grey eyes looked past Harry. "Where's Ron?" He asked.

"He's back at the den. And you stay away from him." Harry said as they walked back towards the woods.

Draco laughed, the sound was like glass breaking. "What's wrong Potter? Afraid you won't be able to hang onto him?"

This time Harry laughed. "That's where you are wrong. Whatever you two had, it's over. He hates you now."

"Hate? I've always called that foreplay."

"Foreplay?" Harry smacked his head. "Wait… was that when you held Ron down and almost raped him? Or maybe when you lied to him and told him that you weren't a death eater."

"You should shut your mouth when you clearly have no clue what you are talking about. And maybe I fucked up, but what about you? You just couldn't wait for your shoulder to be the one he cried on could you?"

Harry choked back an angry retort. This was going nowhere. He shivered under the onslaught of rain. It wasn't as if he had "stolen" Ron from Malfoy as he had implied. No, Ron and Harry hadn't gotten together until a month or so after the night Ron and Malfoy had fought…

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Ron was staring out the window again. Harry watched, a little agitated. Why should his best friend still be upset over that bastard Malfoy. Sure enough Malfoy had gone back to his old tricks and was teasing Ron with a new nastiness that must have been inspired by their ill-fated relationship.

A few hours ago Malfoy had stepped on Ron's robes in front of all of his Slytherin mates, causing Ron to trip. "At least you know where you belong Weasley," Malfoy had said while Ron fell with a soft sound of pain. "On your back."

Harry had watched during these past few painful weeks as Malfoy had pulled stunt, after stunt. In a strange reversal of roles it was Ron who had kept him from punching Malfoy. That asshole had really done something to his friend.

And now it was up to him to pick up all the pieces. Harry forced some cheerfulness into his voice.

"Hey Ron! Do you want to go play some chess?" In the past nothing more had made Ron happier then outsmarting his best mate with his knights and pawns.

"No thanks Harry. Maybe later." Ron said without even looking away from the window.

Harry sighed, and took several steps closer to his friend. Close enough to touch his drooping shoulder if there was any indication that he needed to.

"Nice view?" He asked the shiny red hairs on the back of Ron's head. Peering over he could see a group of Slytherins outside. He didn't have to look too hard to see Draco Malfoy standing amongst them.

Again there was that strange pain in his gut. He took a seat next to Ron.

"Ron? Did you hear what I said?"

Ron turned to him startled. "Oh sorry Harry."

Harry studied his friend. He took in his wide eyes, the long eyelashes, and the tears caught in them. He felt his heart break.

"Sometimes I just feel so numb Harry." Ron said. "I can't even feel myself."

Harry wrapped his arms around Ron, anything to give him something to hold on to. He rubbed his back and murmured nonsensical, sympathetic things. He was prepared for a few hours of Ron crying, maybe spilling out his soul. But guys don't do that, and guys certainly don't do the next unexpected.

Ron's lips found Harry's. Harry tried to pull back, to say something, anything, but Ron's tongue was touching his own and he could feel his own fingers grasping at Ron's robes. The taste in his mouth was bitter sweet with the salt of tears but full of surrender.

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The walk went on in silence. Harry wanted to confront Draco further about Ron, but he couldn't bring himself to it. Let sleeping dogs lie, he thought to himself. Focus on the mission at hand.

"So what can you tell me about Voldemort's current movements?" He asked, not really expecting an answer.

"The death eaters are meeting in two nights, several miles from here." Malfoy told him, his voice was indifferent.

Harry grabbed Draco's collar. "Why did you wait so long to tell me?"

Draco pushed Harry back. "I didn't know until today, jackass."

Harry breathed in, then breathed out.

"We are going to be right under their noses!"

Draco smiled, graceful yet sinister at the same time. "Depends on the way you look at it. With some careful strategy Potter," he spit his name out angrily, "the element of surprise could be all ours."

"That's a suicide mission." Harry said with equal vehemence, and was about to continue but then he noticed his surroundings. In the near distance lay the abandoned, decrepit shack where he and Ron had made their home. Sure the shack was conspicuous enough, but what was not so conspicuous was the underground dwellings below, concealed by magic.

"We will talk about this later. Home sweet home," Harry told Draco, pointing to the shack.

"Really Potter… could you be any more obvious?" He made a sound of disbelief.

Harry smirked. "No not the shack. I'm talking about underneath. We have set up quarters nearly a mile underground."

Draco smiled. " Not bad."

Harry supposed that was the closet form of approval he was ever going to get from Malfoy. Together they continued the down hill journey. He knew Ron was waiting for them.


	2. Chapter 2

-1**Title:** Second Chances? (Part 2 of 3)  
**Pairing:** Harry/Ron, Draco/Ron  
**Author:** InTheVast  
**Rating:** NC-17 eventually  
**Warnings:** Slash, Melodrama, Sex, and Angst  
**Word Count:** 2000ish  
**Disclaimers:** No ownership.

Part II.

"So what we are talking about is basically a kamikaze mission." Lupin said, shrugging his shoulders dismissively, as he crossed his arms and leaned back in the wicker chair.

"What else did you have in mind?" Draco sneered. "Do you really think that we are going to get another chance like this? What are you waiting for..." He stood up roughly, his posture radiating violence. "Would you like them to continue to hunt you down, one by one? Is that more fulfilling of all of your martyr fantasies?" Ron noted the way Draco looked at Harry and Lupin, painstakingly avoiding Ron's own incredulous stare.

"That's enough." Harry said, gesturing for Draco to sit down. The air became palpably tense as Draco eyed Harry again, an unspoken threat darkening his eyes. Harry looked towards Ron as if to ask for help, but all Ron could do was look on hopelessly. He hadn't spoken a word in front of Draco and he wasn't about to start now.

Last night he had been waiting for a confrontation or something, anything really. Anything from a snide comment to a meaningful look, anything besides being flat out ignored. It's not that he minded really, he was doing the exact same thing. If Draco wanted to pretend he wasn't there, that was absolutely fine with him.

"Look, this may be the best opportunity that is going to come our way. If we surprise them, and I know that this meeting will consist of the top death eaters, we kill Voldemort's most powerful supporters." Draco said, his voice falling a few notches

Lupin nodded grimly, finally swallowing the bitter words. "You are right Draco, this is a chance we can't just let pass by." Ron looked at his friend and teacher in shock. Was Lupin really willing to go through with this?

Ron knew there was just one big important thing that hadn't really been considered. How did they know that they could trust him? As if reading his mind, Harry spoke up.

"And you're certain Voldemort has no idea of our hide-out?" Harry asked, staring down at the table as if it fascinated him.

"He doesn't know, and you can't think that I told him either. I didn't even know where you were..." he paused. "Setting up house until yesterday when you showed me."

"You could still have communicated with him." Ron thought out loud, shocking himself and everyone else sitting at the table.

"Well I guess you'll have to trust me." Draco snarled. "Shouldn't be too hard right? I mean I only had to betray people that would torture me for weeks if they found me."

Lupin shook his salt and pepper hair as Draco stood up again, and made his dramatic exit to the outside, presumably to sulk under the dying willow trees.

"I knew it even when I was teaching him, that boy is a ticking bomb." Lupin sighed. He sipped his honey tea from the mug he cradled in his weathered hands.

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"Bastard." Ron grinned as Draco grabbed his collar and pulled him in for a kiss. Draco's tongue met his own and the feeling of it traveled up and down his spine, casting goose bumps all over him. Draco's hands, instantly hurried and insistent, gripped his hipbones and Ron moaned at the pleasure and the pain of Draco's fingers tightening on two day old bruises. But before he could allow himself to sink into this exquisite agony, he heard footsteps. Draco paid no mind, and was sucking Ron's pulse in the hollow of his throat like a vampire.

"Wait, I think someone is coming." Ron said pushing Draco away. He gestured towards the bed, and as both of them stifled laughs, they crawled under the mahogany bed frame. They watched, holding their breaths, as Harry's sneakers circled around Ron's portion of the room, and then with a sigh from the owner, the two shoes exited.

Draco crawled out first but he didn't help Ron up. When Ron pushed himself up, he looked at Draco questioningly, only to be rewarded with an angry glare.

"What's wrong?" Ron asked.

"You tell me." Draco demanded, grabbing his robes and slipping them over his clothes with his back to Ron. "What was he doing here?" His voice was stone cold.

"Who? Harry?" Ron snorted in disbelief. "He lives here. We share a room remember?"

Draco's eyes flashed. "Don't make a fool of me." He grabbed Ron's collar again, this time not for a kiss. He brought his face very deliberately close to Ron's so that Ron could feel his breath against his own cheek when Draco spoke again.

"Why was he looking for you?" Draco laughed bitterly. "Are you fucking him too?"

"Let go of me." Ron pushed him back, but he was more confused then angry. "You were the one that started that rumor if I recall, and there never was any truth to it. Not that you deserve to know, you git."

"Never? So you've never had any secret feelings for him?" Draco asked as he crossed his arms, Ron took a deep breath as he saw Draco was trying to appear as invulnerable as possible.

"Maybe... maybe when we were fourth years." Ron said honestly. "But that was just a little nothing crush. Nothing ever happened." Ron reached for Draco again, but Draco ignored the offering of peace as he was focused on something else behind Ron.

Draco picked up the photo by Ron's bedside table, the one of him, Harry, and Hermione outside of Hogwarts. He stared at it for a second, and Ron watched this, his forehead creasing in confusion at what Draco was doing. Then Ron saw it, Draco's knuckles turning white against the ebony frame of the photo. Draco's face turned hard in the refelction of Ron and Harry's smiling faces. Draco threw the photo against the wall. Ron flinched as he heard the sound of glass shattering, mouth falling open in shock.

"You fucker!" Ron cried in fury, rushing to pick up the pieces.

Looming fearsome over him, Draco began to yell angrily.

"Just admit that you still have feelings for him!"

"I don't!" Ron yelled back. "Are you such a moron that you can't get that through your thick, stupid skull?" As if to drive his point further, he reached upwards till his arms were pulling Draco down close enough to himself. He kissed him and he put everything he had into it, his love, his desire, and his trust.

The blonde boy wrenched away, and looked down upon him as if taking in the scenery of Ron's mussed hair, his distressed state, disheveled robes, and the broken glass laying around him. Draco pulled his own robes up, and then unzipped his pants.

Ron saw instantly that his lover was hard, thick and red-veined with desire. He looked up at Draco hesitantly, saw Draco's hooded silver eyes looking back at him, challenging.

Obediently, Ron shaped his mouth into an O and took Draco's cock into the ring of his mouth.

Much later, after Draco left, Ron was still tasting the bitter remains from their encounter. Ron knew he had to clean up all signs of Draco or Harry would freak out and then think he had really gone mad. Ron had made his bed like a good boy, all he needed next was to clean up the mess from the framed photo Draco had thrown.

He cut his fingers on the glass he picked up. His eyes drifted to the smiling, innocent photo of Harry as he licked the blood from his finger tips.

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"So do you think we can trust him?" Harry asked. Ron could feel the gentleness in his voice. Good old Harry, never trying to be too insistent.

"I don't know. He's always been difficult to read." Ron looked at his own hands as if his palms would tell him the answers. Pity, he had never really paid attention in palm divination.

Harry threw up his hands in frustration. "I guess I just thought if anyone would have an idea it might be you."

Ron wrapped an arm around Harry and together they settled into the tiny, makeshift bed in their corner of the hideout.

"Made with love." Harry had told him when he first presented the lopsided, quilted bunk. Currently there was a makeshift curtain around them, separating their bed from Draco's. Ron wished they had been able to stick him with some other aurors, but none of them had wanted to deal with a renegade death eater.

"So is Draco still out there pouting or what?" Ron asked Harry, settling into his favorite little nook in between Harry's neck and shoulder. He could feel how tense his lover was with stress, no doubt over this impending mission.

"Yeah." Harry sighed, smoothing back Ron's red gold hair to kiss him on the forehead. "Maybe I should go have another talk with him, if only I didn't think he would try to aveda kadava me."

"Maybe..." Ron gulped. "Maybe," he looked up into Harry's bright green eyes. "Maybe I should try to talk to him?"

Ron felt Harry's next deep breath stir his hair. There was a small pause as Harry contemplated. Ron waited for the accusations, maybe Harry didn't trust him enough. He would understand if that was the case.

"If you wouldn't mind Ron, that would be great." Harry said softly. "You'll probably be able to read him better then anyone else, but I know what that is going to be like for you."

"Yeah." Ron sighed. He reached over and began to rub the knots out of Harry's neck.

"I just need to know if I, I mean we, can trust him. I'm risking some of the best of us on this stealth attack... mmmm that feels nice. Thanks Ron."

Harry kissed him, a sweet tangle of tongue and promise, fingers warmly traveling down the indentations of his spine. When they parted Ron let out a deep breath of submission.

"I'll talk to him." And then he let go of Harry's shoulders because he was losing all feeling in his fingers. He knew what he had to do.

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The air outside was cold and thick. Nearly suffocating. Ron briefly thought about running far, far away. But he knew deep down he could run to the ends of the world, away from this war, and he would never escape this moment. There was something defective running in his veins, something powerful and surging from within and it was inescapable. It was in the way Draco turned to look at him, grey eyes flashing knowingly, the traces of a strange smile curling his mouth as he looked Ron up and down. His gaze lowered from the shabby robes to the holes in his worn shoes.

"Well what do you know," Draco drawled. "Some things never change."


End file.
